


Healer Evans

by RedButterfly33



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, St Mungo's Hospital
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-27
Updated: 2015-08-27
Packaged: 2018-04-17 12:41:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4666911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedButterfly33/pseuds/RedButterfly33
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just as Lily was fixing her red hair in a tight bun and hiding it under the lime-green hat, there was a knock on the door. Miles, one of the new apprentices straight out of Hogwarts, poked his head in and said timidly, "Er, Healer Evans? The operation has been cancelled."</p><p>Lily whirled around to face him. "Cancelled? I was told the child was on death's door!"</p><p>Miles looked down, his whole face turning red. "He is... but the father refused to sign the permission form."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Healer Evans

* * *

Lily put the surgical gloves on over her shaking hands and downed a Calming Draught. The Healers always kept a large supply for the hysterical patients and their friends and family. It wasn't that she hadn't operated on anyone before – she had just never done it on a _child_ before.

Lily had become a full-fledged Healer only two months ago. During peace times, she probably wouldn't be able to gather much experience in such a short time, but in the middle of what was an all out _war_ against Voldemort and his followers at this point, practice for a surgeon was not hard to come by. Every day more and more wounded came in, sometimes literally by the hour. Whenever the Death Eaters got too carried away, twenty or thirty people would need to be accepted at once, and the hospital was bursting at the seams. Nearly every ward had to be enlarged with an expansion charm, and new beds conjured to accommodate the sick and injured.

More often than not, there weren't enough Healers to take care of everyone, which was why Lily had been doing the work of a licensed Healer pretty much from the moment she got accepted into the program. She had seen everything by this point: cut off limbs, skin burned so horribly it looked like it was melting, wounds cursed to fight any and all attempts to treat them, people scarred and disfigured by torture, the word 'mudblood' branded or carved into their skin. But children, they were always handled by the more experienced, by those with the steadiest wands.

This child in particular had just had a bad stroke of luck. The Head Healer was attending a funeral, and as Lily had the graveyard shift tonight, she was the only one presently at St. Mungo's capable of performing the operation. There was no time to owl any of the Senior Healers – if the punctured kidney was not attended to in the next twenty minutes, the child was as good as dead.

Just as Lily was fixing her red hair in a tight bun and hiding it under the lime-green hat, there was a knock on the door. Miles, one of the new apprentices straight out of Hogwarts, poked his head in and said timidly, "Er, Healer Evans? The operation has been cancelled."

Lily whirled around to face him. "Cancelled? I was told the child was on death's door!"

Miles looked down, his whole face turning red. "He is... but the father refused to sign the permission form."

"What!? Why in Merlin's name would he do that? His son is dying!"

"He... he said that... well," the apprentice stammered, but Lily didn't have time for his shyness today. She pushed past him and nearly ran down the hallway to the children's ward.

Storming in through the double doors, she immediately spotted a swarm of Healers gathered around one of the beds.

"Mr. Farnham, please reconsider..."

"There is nothing to reconsider! Either find me a new Healer or let me spend the last few hours with my son in peace!"

Lily froze. She knew this man. Bill Farnham was three years above her at Hogwarts, in Gryffindor House.

"What is this about?" she said, nearing the bed. The other Healers shot her desperate looks, and one handed her a clipboard with the permission form as they filed out of the ward. Bill gave Lily a spiteful glare, then turned his eyes to the bed, where his son was barely drawing breath.

"Mr. Farnham," Lily started gently. "Why won't you sign the permission form? Your son is dying."

"Then find me another Healer," he growled through gritted teeth. She stared at him in bewilderment.

"You're doing this because you don't want _me_ to operate on him?"

He glared at the floor silently, avoiding her eyes. Lily searched her head for all the times they had spoken in Hogwarts and tried to remember if she had offended him in some way. Nothing came to mind.

"Look, I realize most parents don't like the idea of having someone as green as I am work on their kids, but I'm the only Healer on duty capable of performing this operation," Lily explained, as mildly as she could, while a child was dying right under her nose. "I assure you though, I have done this procedure before and there's nothing to–"

"I won't let a filthy mudblood touch him!" Bill Farnham exploded, turning his angry eyes to her again. "I don't trust someone like you with my son's life!"

Lily couldn't believe her ears. A child was going to die because of her birth?

"Well too bad, because I'm the best shot your boy has at life!" she said sharply. "Are you going to condemn him to certain death, rather than let 'someone like me' help him? _I can save him!_ "

"I seriously doubt that," he snapped. "It's a complicated procedure, and it involves magic way beyond that of a mudblood!"

"So you're signing your son's death warrant because of blood prejudice?" she exclaimed, completely shocked. She knew this sort of thing ran deep, but for a child, for his child, she would have thought he'd get over his pride and try _anything_.

Bill turned to the kid in the bed again. The little boy was out cold, his skin a sickly gray hue, his whole body was drenched in sweat and his breathing was labored, coming out in heavy, wheezing pants.

Lily gripped the wand in the pocket of her apron. She knew what she could do to get that permission form signed. She and Bill were the only conscious people in the ward. The curse was at the tip of her tongue, yet she hesitated. She had never used an Unforgivable before. Was it right to manipulate this man, to force his hand and take away his free will? There was a reason why this spell was illegal. No one had the right to control another person's actions, it was immoral, it was _wrong_. She could go to jail for this.

Then her green eyes fell on the child in the bed again, and she knew one thing with absolute certainty – she could not let this innocent boy die.

" _Imperio!_ "

Bill's eyes glazed over and he looked at her, a dreamy smile on his face. She held out the clipboard to him, and he took the self-inking eagle quill attached to it and obediently scribbled his signature at the bottom.

"Thank you," Lily said curtly, taking the permission form back. "Now, _Obliviate!_ "

Bill's eyes crossed and he shook his head in confusion. Lily turned on her heel without another word and left the ward with brisk, deliberate steps.

"Prepare the child and get him into the operation room, ASAP," she said to the first Healer she came across and shoved the clipboard at her chest. "We have a life to save."


End file.
